Gift of life after former Leeds pub landlord’s sudden death

A POPULAR former Leeds pub landlord collapsed and died aged 38 at the weekend after complaining of feeling unwell following a night out with friends.

Lee Brown, of Middleton, Leeds, suffered a brain haemorrhage on Saturday afternoon while at the 90s Reloaded music weekend at Butlins in Skegness.

His devastated family agreed for his major organs to be donated and Mr Brown’s heart has already been used in a transplant operation in Birmingham.

Mr Brown’s mother Diane, 57, said: “He was always helping folk. He helped everybody and he has helped somebody even after his death.”

Mr Brown had been out on Friday night at Butlins in Skegness with cousin Ricky Grimshaw and friends Richard Sharp and Paul Groom.

Diane Brown said her son collapsed on Saturday afternoon, adding: “He said to his cousin ‘my head feels fuzzy.’ Then he said he couldn’t see and, as he said it, he just fell to the floor.”

Mr Brown was taken by ambulance to the Pilgrim Hospital in Lincolnshire, but did not regain consciousness.

His uncle Peter Rycoft, 63, said: “Now his heart is beating in someone else’s body.” Mr Brown’s daughter Chloe, 14, said: “He was amazing. He gave me anything and everything I asked for. The fact he is helping people after he has gone is amazing.”

Close friend Dave Mawn said: “He had a heart of gold. Whoever gets his heart will have the biggest heart in the world.”

Mr Brown was landlord of the Middleton Arms on Middleton Park Road from 2006 to 2010. The pub closed in 2010 was demolished in April 2012. An Aldi store now stands on the site.

Mr Brown’s funeral will be held at 11.40am on Tuesday October 7 at Cottingley Cemetery followed by a wake at the Falconers Rest on Thorpe Lane, Middleton.